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Jung's Methods in Psychotherapy

Jung's method in psychotherapy follows the
Freud's one, as he often admitted. In rare cases, when Freudian approach of the psyche is not sufficient, Jung would apply also a complementary method that should guide the patient to a personal confrontation with the collective unconsciousand itsarchetypes.

This confrontation aims at the assimilation of

archetypal images
, in short,the individuation - an extensive process that leads to the realization of the psychic wholeness
made of the conjunction of the conscious and the unconscious. In common terms, it is all about an extension of the conscious mind to include the archetypal materials pointing to the basics of the completeness.

The entire process is achieved through the following methods of exploration:

Free Associations TestTest used in psychotherapeutic treatment that consists of recording the average
response time to certain stimulus-words. The patient is asked to answer to the inducted words pronounced by the analyst with any word that comes to his mind. The response time can be an indicator of the activated unconscious
complexes.

Note: There is a free associations test that automatically computes the problem-words

Dream AnalysisUp to a point, Jung's dream interpretation method follows the Freud's one, including thefree associations, subject level, retrospective approach. But he
later added several new concepts, such as the amplificationof dream content, the idea that the dream brings a compensation
to the one-sided individual ego, and its finality that aims at the the psychic wholeness. Learn more...

Active ImaginationJung invited his patients to let all the things flow in their mind.
That is, the inner fantasies must flow freely while the patient must proceed not as a detached and contemplative viewer, nor as a psychotherapist, but as an actor that takes part in his fantasies, that plays a role in them. The fantasies are products of the unconscious and must be fully integrated in his conscious mind.
Learn more.

Symbol AnalysisA large part of dream interpretation technique at Jung consists in symbol analysis. It aims at the integration of the
unconscious contents and the extension of conscious mind. Learn more.

Playing, painting, building and other such activities
may lead one to explore and manifest his own unconscious contents. In painting one may express a visual representation of the wholeness. Also in building, one may relieve his inner creative forces blocked or inhibited by his one-sided moral or ethical values.